Tag: Koenig Specials

The ’70s and ’80s certainly possessed their own sense of style and few things make that more clear than when we look at tuners who were popular during those eras. Not all were so crazy. Looking at a few RUF models we can see that they were content to retain the general style of Porsche themselves, though in fairness a 930 isn’t exactly a shrinking violet. But here our attention will be on the other tuners; the tuners who delighted in bringing their own sense of audacity to the automobile market. Koenig Specials is one such tuner and though they’ve been around for four decades now I think most of us would be familiar with them from their earlier years when they produced complete packages to transform both the appearance and the performance of many cars. On these pages we’re most familiar with them for their work with Mercedes-Benz, but there are a few rare Porsches floating around as well. One of those is the one we see here: a Koenig Specials modified 1991 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Coupe with a mere 19K kilometers on it. It is said that only eight such examples were built, making this a very rare commodity on the 911 market.

Far, far on the other end of the tuning spectrum from the Dinan M5 of this morning are the ‘all show, no go’ scene cars. Built to resemble wildly flared racers, cars from manufacturers like DP Motorsports, Gemballa and Strosek are at best polarizing cars. At worst, they’re like the plot line to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex; kill your father, marry your mother and have your sister-daughters, then stab your eyes out and live in a cave. But the Rex himself must certainly be defined as Walter Koenig, with his widebody, Testarossa-straked creations. While usually we see Mercedes-Benz and Porsche versions of Koenig modified cars, today we get a rare glimpse of what he’d do to a E30. And, only a glimpse…

As a young man, I spent countless hours dreaming of blasting down the Mulsanne in a Rothman’s 962 Group C car chasing Hans Stuck. But I was not alone; the dream of driving the legendary and most successful Group C car was that of many across the world. Some of those who dreamed had the means to make it happen, too – and in one of the strangest prototype twists I think ever, multiple road going versions of the 962 saw the light of day from different tuner companies. There was the DP Motorsports version – effectively, just a race-going 962 with some tread on the tires. There was the “Derek Bell Signature Edition 962, too – which looked the part but built on chassis numbers alone with a GT2 motor. Then there was the ex-Porsche racer Vern Schuppan’s version called the 962CR. The most radical, it looked like a 962 had spent a drunken night with a 959. There was also the very interesting tale of the Dauer 962 – ironically, turned into a road car so that it could exploit a loophole in the rule book to be turned back into a race-winning car at Le Mans. Indeed, for several years during the supercar boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed that a new version of a road going 962 came out every few months. But the first of all of these was from reviled tuner Koenig Specials, who in a departure from their typical formula of “just add Testarossa slats everywhere” introduced a thinny veiled race car for the road:

I was watching a very interesting piece about mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders last night; a trend which started in the 1980s, some people have been thrown into jail quite literally for the rest of their lives for being involved – even in a minor role – in the war on drugs. In drew into sharp contrast the dichotomous nature of the 1980s, where as a society we declared that drugs were a horrible thing while simultaneously celebrating a community of music, art and even Wall Street that was built around them. In some aspects, one can see that dichotomy in some of the tuner cars from the 1980s, and I think that the mega Mercedes-Benz products are a great example. Starchy, upright and conservative, Mercedes-Benz used to be the standard by which engineering was measured; the automotive bar for luxury automobiles. Yet, at the same time, various tuners took them and turned them into monsters; lowering the suspension, fitting giant wheels and motors, they transformed the conservative Republican into a Punk Rock idol. Some of these creations are more celebrated than others; AMG, for example, has a near faultless reputation which is backed even by Mercedes-Benz themselves, who decided to buy them later in life. Others are…well, not so highly regarded, such as the numerous Koenig specials that were created from otherwise unassuming ’80s Benzs:

Something strikes me as odd that this car hasn’t traveled in those two years, the mileage hasn’t changed much. In fact it has covered less than 5,000 miles since 1997, stashed in a collectors garage. One of the times the car was on eBay, in Fall of 2009, it had apparently sold for $8,700, but looks like that sale didn’t go through. Now it is up for sale for $12,500.

If you disregard the strangeness of the fact that no one seems to want to drive this car, the price is not too shabby for a genuine low mileage Koenig car. If this was a big body Benz with that mileage buyers would be more likely to bite. Plus this one was owned by Ken Griffey Jr. as indicated by the custom speedometer gauge face, which should appeal to some people.

The dark green paint is a unique color, but the custom yellow striping and boy racer trunk lid spoiler are kind of a turn off. Of course if you are in the market for a Koenig car you aren’t interested in being inconspicuous.

The current owner purchased the car earlier this summer from the collector who had basically parked it since 1997. This seller had some work completed to make the car more road worthy. It looks like it could still use some work to fix the handling and touch up some paint and chrome issues. Maintenance on this should be a breeze as it still sports the standard 3 liter inline six of which parts are plentiful.

If the right collector finds this it might sell at the opening ask price. More likely though I bet it goes through with no bids, which is strange when you think about what a new Koenig Specials conversion cost.…

This M6 has had some interesting treatment by Koenig Specials. It has only 40,000 miles on it and the seller is looking to get $29,000. This car is said to have been a Koenig company car where it sat in their showroom. It has been stripped down inside to reduce weight and has undergone some significant overhaul work engine-wise. The seller states:

It also has been wrapped in matte black vinyl. The car doesn’t have any of the flamboyant wide body kit that Koenig is known for, though it does have some Koenig badges. Without that kit and with the wrap it strikes me as kind of odd. The low miles will help get some interest, but I doubt it will reach $29,000. Regardless of what you think of the matte black look, that massaged inline six mixed with the manual transmission surely makes this a fun car to drive.

Coming out of a Florida estate sale is this nice looking Koenig Special. The car has a bit over 100,000 miles on the 3.8 liter V8. The seller doesn’t come off as an expert on Mercedes vehicles, but does provide what sounds like an honest and fair description of the car in a video overview posted within the ad.

The paint is showing some expected wear, but in general the widebody kit and the interior look very good for a car like this. Those of you who follow the big Benzs with the “Miami Vice” style kits of this era know that most that come to market these days have many cracks, dings, chips, and defects. This one looks fine as is; a new owner could make it exceptional with a strip and high quality respray. Other than this being based on the lower output 3.8 instead of the 5.0 or 5.6, this one appears to be a good candidate for preservation. The 3.8 does make this a bit more uncommon in terms of other Koenig models. The car is a Euro model and was imported through proper channels, it has the correct importer markings.

The seller makes a mention of this car having a twin timing chain setup, which is nothing special, but a common conversion on the 3.8 as a preventative maintenance measure. Outside of the paint problems, its missing part of the climate control system, the speedo doesn’t work, there is a modern radio (good or bad depending on your purist intentions a period correct Alpine unit would look great), and lastly for some unknown reason the gold trunk Mercedes emblem has been replaced upside done.

The ask is $8,500 with bidding up at a reserve not met $6,200. Lots of depreciation on a car that cost over $100k when new.…

Koenig Specials started tuning Mercedes in 1984. They did work on Ferrari and Porsche as well and in most cases the finished project was significantly wider than it started. For Benzs K.S. offered supercharged and twin turbo variants. Customers were able to ask for pretty much anything they wanted. The trade mark though is those monster flares with tires as wide as they are tall, this one features 335/35/17 tires out back.

There is not a lot of description here, but the pictures do speak for themselves. The car has 33,000 miles. It would be great if it came with provenance/ownership history. Sometimes with cars like these it is hard to know what is stock and what isn’t underneath the obvious.

The interior has been totally customized with everything from a TV to a trunk mounted DVD an VHS player and lots of extra wood. 5 point harness and stylized Koenig gauges go along with the period cell phone.

The looks of Koenig cars can be polarizing, I for one like the monochromatic scheme in something other than white. No one can argue the exclusiveness of these nor their outrageous cost when new. Lots of bidding has this one up to $28,000 with the reserve not met or about quadruple what a decent standard 560SEC will cost you.

With a clientele that included Sophia Loren, Crayford conversions on 1970s Mercedes are an exclusive beast. These costly vehicles came warrantied by Mercedes and were the way customers who wanted an estate wagon for their fancy sedan could have the best of both worlds. This particular car interestingly shows the ugly U.S. market safety bumpers, but has avoided the recognizable, though inferior U.S. market quad circle sealed beam headlights in favor of Euro spec H4 beams. The seller, presumably using the register of Crayford Mercedes found here: http://www.crayford-benz.org, claims this to be one of only two or three in existence.

I may be mistaken, but I believe that this is not the only Koenig Special Benz once owned by baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. in existence. Koenig epitomized the Miami Vice over the top bad ass look when it came to mid 80s Mercedes. This later 1991, has the same flavor with the in your face widebody kit, but I think the look is actually better pulled off by slightly larger W126 bodied Benz coupes like the 560SEC. Occasionally you will see the widebody kits in metal, but more often they are fiberglass and after nearly 20 years it may show some spiderweb cracking up close. It is hard to say what the premium here is for the owner provenance, but it safe to say this asking price is a significant discount from new. A new owner of this Koenig Special vehicle will need to remember that, though most mechanical parts won’t be any harder to find than standard 3 liter Mercedes fare, replacing the massive 315 size tires on the rears will be a cost. Fortunately with a 6 cylinder engine, instead of the torque of a 5 or 5.6 liter from a 126 bodied car, burnouts should be easier to avoid.…

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